Kevin Koster commented on Sean Hannity Was Against Politicization Of National Security Before He Was For It
2012-10-25 11:14:44 -0400
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Of course Hannity is hypocritical about this. And we’re shocked, shocked to see that gambling is going on this establishment. (And here’s your winnings, Capt Renault!)
But this is just Hannity’s latest desperate swipe at President Obama. None of the others have worked but he’s hoping he can fan the flames of it right before the election. Good luck with that to him.
And in the meantime, Dick Morris is continuing to predict both to Hannity and to O’Reilly that somehow Romney is going to have a massive victory that includes multiple states that are locks for Obama (like Michigan) (???), and swing states that are continuing to lean strongly to Obama with less than 2 weeks to go (Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania). This will be a closer election due to the non-performance in the first debate, but a blowout? At this point, it’s flabbergasting where Morris is coming from. And does this mean that on November 7th, we can do what O’Reilly suggested for Morris in the light of such a spectacularly wrong prediction?
But this is just Hannity’s latest desperate swipe at President Obama. None of the others have worked but he’s hoping he can fan the flames of it right before the election. Good luck with that to him.
And in the meantime, Dick Morris is continuing to predict both to Hannity and to O’Reilly that somehow Romney is going to have a massive victory that includes multiple states that are locks for Obama (like Michigan) (???), and swing states that are continuing to lean strongly to Obama with less than 2 weeks to go (Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania). This will be a closer election due to the non-performance in the first debate, but a blowout? At this point, it’s flabbergasting where Morris is coming from. And does this mean that on November 7th, we can do what O’Reilly suggested for Morris in the light of such a spectacularly wrong prediction?
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Pretends Romney Leads In Early Voting
2012-10-20 11:52:07 -0400
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Starting on Tuesday, I expect Fox to do a steady drumbeat of stories about how Romney is marching into the White House and how “the race is slipping away from President Obama.” They’ll cherry pick any poll they can find that shows Romney leading in any swing state and extrapolate from there. On the 6th, they’ll press that button all day long, reading any exit poll they can that shows support for Romney until 8pm West Coast Time. At which point, the situation will be over and you’ll start to hear the excuses. And yes, “voter fraud” will be one – expect James O’Keefe to be waiting in the wings with “an explosive video” on that front…
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Starting A Witch Hunt To Get Candy Crowley Fired
2012-10-21 02:07:33 -0400
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Jennifer, I appreciate your last response to me.
I now understand what you were thinking about the Darrell Issa hearing. And yes, it was on C-SPAN and there are both Dems and GOP on the Oversight Committee. My feeling about the hearing is that Issa rushed the timing of holding it – not because he’s trying to get to the bottom of what happened as that’s already being dealt with, but because he wanted to repeat what he had done over the past 18 months about the “Fast & Furious” ATF program. My problem with Issa’s approach is that it usually has him promoting himself and grandstanding rather than actually dealing with what can be fairly complex issues. And Issa’s past political history in California does not suggest that his motives are purely investigatory.
You are correct that the Administration’s public statements about what happened in Libya were fairly confused for about two weeks. And I can see that you do understand the horrific mess in the region that happened as a result of that video. From what I can tell from what we’ve learned, the video did not cause the specific attack at the consulate, but it did cause rioting across Libya that the terrorists were only too happy to piggyback. I think there was likely confusion as to whether there was a spontaneous demonstration happening that the bad guys crashed, or whether it was solely an attack, as it now seems. Given what had just happened in Cairo, with the embassy being overrun and the flag pulled down, I can understand the confusion. I also believe that our people have been tracking the people who planned and carried out the attack, and that they’re playing their cards very close to the vest so as not to let on too much before apprehending the killers. That isn’t a partisan thing – it’s a criminal investigation thing. Whether a Democrat or Republican is President, that kind of attack is going to get a careful investigation, which may not get discussed very accurately in public.
Regarding the security briefings, I’ve heard different accounts of it and don’t know enough about the subject to be an expert by any means. I did hear criticism being levelled by John Sununu that Obama wasn’t doing the briefings in person but was instead getting text briefings. Then I heard that getting mutated into the notion that he wasn’t doing the briefings, which simply didn’t pass the smell test. And Sununu has made a whole series of unfortunate comments about the President, including calling him lazy and unintelligent. So I’m tending to think the idea is a non-issue and a red herring.
Regarding the polling, I’d still recommend 538 as Nate Silver has been fairly accurate over the past few years. He isn’t perfect at this, but he offers what feels like the most impartial aggregate of multiple polls – weighting for Democrat bias or GOP bias, and weighting for various other factors including the current economic conditions, etc.
Regarding all the debate issues, we’ll see on Monday night what happens with the last one. My hope is that both men follow the rules and just discuss the issues without it turning into what we saw in the prior ones. I think you’re correct that the moderator shouldn’t be jumping into the middle of things – but if there’s a complete whopper being given and the proceedings are stopped by it, I don’t have a problem with her trying to move the guys past the issue. She didn’t do this on everything. Romney got away with a cheap shot about accusing the President of having gone on “an apology tour” and trying to “lead from behind” – both of which are debunked right wing talking points usually just heard on Rush Limbaugh and Fox. My belief is that Romney will try to repeat those on Monday and that Obama will take the time then to once again debunk them.
All of that said, we have less than three weeks before Election Day, and I believe that most voters’ minds have been made up for months now. The early voting already going on will not be affected by any of the debates. And the real poll will be taken on the 6th. We’ll see how it turns out.
I now understand what you were thinking about the Darrell Issa hearing. And yes, it was on C-SPAN and there are both Dems and GOP on the Oversight Committee. My feeling about the hearing is that Issa rushed the timing of holding it – not because he’s trying to get to the bottom of what happened as that’s already being dealt with, but because he wanted to repeat what he had done over the past 18 months about the “Fast & Furious” ATF program. My problem with Issa’s approach is that it usually has him promoting himself and grandstanding rather than actually dealing with what can be fairly complex issues. And Issa’s past political history in California does not suggest that his motives are purely investigatory.
You are correct that the Administration’s public statements about what happened in Libya were fairly confused for about two weeks. And I can see that you do understand the horrific mess in the region that happened as a result of that video. From what I can tell from what we’ve learned, the video did not cause the specific attack at the consulate, but it did cause rioting across Libya that the terrorists were only too happy to piggyback. I think there was likely confusion as to whether there was a spontaneous demonstration happening that the bad guys crashed, or whether it was solely an attack, as it now seems. Given what had just happened in Cairo, with the embassy being overrun and the flag pulled down, I can understand the confusion. I also believe that our people have been tracking the people who planned and carried out the attack, and that they’re playing their cards very close to the vest so as not to let on too much before apprehending the killers. That isn’t a partisan thing – it’s a criminal investigation thing. Whether a Democrat or Republican is President, that kind of attack is going to get a careful investigation, which may not get discussed very accurately in public.
Regarding the security briefings, I’ve heard different accounts of it and don’t know enough about the subject to be an expert by any means. I did hear criticism being levelled by John Sununu that Obama wasn’t doing the briefings in person but was instead getting text briefings. Then I heard that getting mutated into the notion that he wasn’t doing the briefings, which simply didn’t pass the smell test. And Sununu has made a whole series of unfortunate comments about the President, including calling him lazy and unintelligent. So I’m tending to think the idea is a non-issue and a red herring.
Regarding the polling, I’d still recommend 538 as Nate Silver has been fairly accurate over the past few years. He isn’t perfect at this, but he offers what feels like the most impartial aggregate of multiple polls – weighting for Democrat bias or GOP bias, and weighting for various other factors including the current economic conditions, etc.
Regarding all the debate issues, we’ll see on Monday night what happens with the last one. My hope is that both men follow the rules and just discuss the issues without it turning into what we saw in the prior ones. I think you’re correct that the moderator shouldn’t be jumping into the middle of things – but if there’s a complete whopper being given and the proceedings are stopped by it, I don’t have a problem with her trying to move the guys past the issue. She didn’t do this on everything. Romney got away with a cheap shot about accusing the President of having gone on “an apology tour” and trying to “lead from behind” – both of which are debunked right wing talking points usually just heard on Rush Limbaugh and Fox. My belief is that Romney will try to repeat those on Monday and that Obama will take the time then to once again debunk them.
All of that said, we have less than three weeks before Election Day, and I believe that most voters’ minds have been made up for months now. The early voting already going on will not be affected by any of the debates. And the real poll will be taken on the 6th. We’ll see how it turns out.
Kevin Koster commented on Democrat Bernard Whitman Confronts Fox News’ Focus On Candy Crowley Instead Of Romney’s Debate Performance
2012-10-18 13:19:05 -0400
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Kelly’s infuriated response here is typical of the right wing reaction to the debate. Which should tell you how they really feel it went down. If these people thought that Mitt Romney was winning that debate, they would be repeating their behavior from the first one – rubbing their hands with glee, dancing around the room and making nasty comments about how Obama was shown to be this or that. Instead, they’re trying to attack the moderator for pointing out a misstatement by Romney, and they’re trying to ignore the overall debate performance, which was not helpful for them.
The actual facts of the debate are that Obama did show up for this one, where he didn’t do much at the first one. Romney attempted to repeat his performance from the first one, but found himself in a much more challenging situation – one that clearly wore on him as time went on.
In several areas, Romney did major damage to his campaign – and in others President Obama was able to point outt Romney’s inadequacy in a devastating manner.
Romney’s gaffes included not being able to provide specifics about his plans, not being able to answer Obama’s specific charges about the Arizona anti-immigrant law (Obama nailed him by pointing out that Kris Kobach is Romney’s immigration advisor and that Romney has publicly stated he wants to encourage self-deportation), not being able to answer the charges about his investments other than to yelp about Obama’s pension plan, not being able to adequately answer the question about women in the workplace without committing a major gaffe, and then two final ones that may have caused more damage than we’ll know for a few days. First, he misspoke about the President’s remarks about Libya, acting under the assumption that he had scored a major “gotcha”, thus leaving himself open to a humiliating correction by the moderator. And then he left the President a massive opportunity to close with the 47 percent quote, thus defining Romney for millions of Americans as a man who doesn’t understand or care about them.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the post-debate polling show a moderate but increasing drop for Romney, and a moderate increase for Obama. Obama’s supporters will be more enthusiastic about supporting their candidate now when asked by pollers, while the Romney supporters will be circling the wagons. This plus the fact that Ohio will indeed by allowing early voting by everyone is likely causing major concern for the Romney campaign – as they are running out of time and they still haven’t been able to catch up.
My only regret from this debate is that Obama did not correct Romney on the right wing talking point about the “apology tour” – but I believe that this will be batted down on Monday, during which time I have a feeling that Obama will repeat what I thought was a proper and satisfying correction to Romney’s political game-playing with the deaths in Libya.
And if they want to get into a longer discussion about Libya, it’s a pretty simple discussion – there were riots happening across the Middle East as a result of the anti-Islam movie, just as such things happened when the anti-Mohammed cartoon got publicity a few years ago. The riots happened everywhere from Cairo to Libya. During this mess, a terror group was able to take advantage of the situation to mount an attack and kill some people, including the Ambassador. The terrorists who did this are obviously being tracked down, but these investigations are not things that we discuss in public for obvious reasons. So the answer given by the Obama Administration was neither a lie nor a cover-up. There were in fact many spontaneous demonstrations that happened – this specific attack turns out not to be one of them, although there were others in the area. Obama specifically answered this the day after the riots broke out, referring to both the demonstrations/riots and to the killings. He referred to acts of terror, which he said would be investigated and he also urged calm. Romney’s total igorance of what the President actually said and when he said it indicates his debate prep was incomplete – he was clearly prepped to attack on the mistaken basis that the President didn’t mention terror for two weeks – which was an unfortunate fumble for Romney.
The actual facts of the debate are that Obama did show up for this one, where he didn’t do much at the first one. Romney attempted to repeat his performance from the first one, but found himself in a much more challenging situation – one that clearly wore on him as time went on.
In several areas, Romney did major damage to his campaign – and in others President Obama was able to point outt Romney’s inadequacy in a devastating manner.
Romney’s gaffes included not being able to provide specifics about his plans, not being able to answer Obama’s specific charges about the Arizona anti-immigrant law (Obama nailed him by pointing out that Kris Kobach is Romney’s immigration advisor and that Romney has publicly stated he wants to encourage self-deportation), not being able to answer the charges about his investments other than to yelp about Obama’s pension plan, not being able to adequately answer the question about women in the workplace without committing a major gaffe, and then two final ones that may have caused more damage than we’ll know for a few days. First, he misspoke about the President’s remarks about Libya, acting under the assumption that he had scored a major “gotcha”, thus leaving himself open to a humiliating correction by the moderator. And then he left the President a massive opportunity to close with the 47 percent quote, thus defining Romney for millions of Americans as a man who doesn’t understand or care about them.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the post-debate polling show a moderate but increasing drop for Romney, and a moderate increase for Obama. Obama’s supporters will be more enthusiastic about supporting their candidate now when asked by pollers, while the Romney supporters will be circling the wagons. This plus the fact that Ohio will indeed by allowing early voting by everyone is likely causing major concern for the Romney campaign – as they are running out of time and they still haven’t been able to catch up.
My only regret from this debate is that Obama did not correct Romney on the right wing talking point about the “apology tour” – but I believe that this will be batted down on Monday, during which time I have a feeling that Obama will repeat what I thought was a proper and satisfying correction to Romney’s political game-playing with the deaths in Libya.
And if they want to get into a longer discussion about Libya, it’s a pretty simple discussion – there were riots happening across the Middle East as a result of the anti-Islam movie, just as such things happened when the anti-Mohammed cartoon got publicity a few years ago. The riots happened everywhere from Cairo to Libya. During this mess, a terror group was able to take advantage of the situation to mount an attack and kill some people, including the Ambassador. The terrorists who did this are obviously being tracked down, but these investigations are not things that we discuss in public for obvious reasons. So the answer given by the Obama Administration was neither a lie nor a cover-up. There were in fact many spontaneous demonstrations that happened – this specific attack turns out not to be one of them, although there were others in the area. Obama specifically answered this the day after the riots broke out, referring to both the demonstrations/riots and to the killings. He referred to acts of terror, which he said would be investigated and he also urged calm. Romney’s total igorance of what the President actually said and when he said it indicates his debate prep was incomplete – he was clearly prepped to attack on the mistaken basis that the President didn’t mention terror for two weeks – which was an unfortunate fumble for Romney.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox News Website "Bias Alert" Is Biased?
2012-10-18 12:48:04 -0400
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Brent Bozell has been discredited for years. Ever since his MRC and PTC were sued by WWE and suffered a humiliating loss (including paying the WWE millions of dollars and being forced to publish a humble apology), I haven’t taken them as experts on anything.
Kevin Koster commented on Who Cares If Romney Lied During The Debate? He Looked Good!
2012-10-10 01:33:39 -0400
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I’ve just found it interesting watching the right wing repeatedly spiking the football after the debate and taking what feels like a record number of victory laps. They should certainly do this now, if they want to engage in that kind of behavior.
At this point, unless Obama completely fumbles the next two debates and the economy collapses within the next 20 days, they are still behind in enough places that their chances of winning are still below 30 percent. Assuming Obama does well in the next debate, which I believe is quite possible and likely, you’ll see the polls swing back in the other direction, at which point Fox News will go back to the idea that the polls are not to be believed.
The right wing confidently declared that Obama had no chance to be elected in 2008 for a whole pile of reasons. When all else failed, they turned to the “Tom Bradley Effect” card – painting the whole country as racist as the people to whom they were pandering. When they lost that election, they were completely shocked. Shock turned to rage and we’ve seen the results over the past 3 years and 9 months. Now they’ve spent the past two months throwing any attack they could at President Obama only to see his lead build. With a single debate where their opponent wasn’t challenged on the falsehoods he was saying, they somehow want us to think this election has been decided. As in 2008, I strongly doubt the American public agrees with them on this.
At this point, unless Obama completely fumbles the next two debates and the economy collapses within the next 20 days, they are still behind in enough places that their chances of winning are still below 30 percent. Assuming Obama does well in the next debate, which I believe is quite possible and likely, you’ll see the polls swing back in the other direction, at which point Fox News will go back to the idea that the polls are not to be believed.
The right wing confidently declared that Obama had no chance to be elected in 2008 for a whole pile of reasons. When all else failed, they turned to the “Tom Bradley Effect” card – painting the whole country as racist as the people to whom they were pandering. When they lost that election, they were completely shocked. Shock turned to rage and we’ve seen the results over the past 3 years and 9 months. Now they’ve spent the past two months throwing any attack they could at President Obama only to see his lead build. With a single debate where their opponent wasn’t challenged on the falsehoods he was saying, they somehow want us to think this election has been decided. As in 2008, I strongly doubt the American public agrees with them on this.
Kevin Koster commented on Eric Bolling Enables Jack Welch’s Unemployment-Numbers Conspiracy Theory
2012-10-06 11:27:02 -0400
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This is just the latest bit of sour grapes from the GOP. They wanted an unemployment rate higher than 8 percent, and a job number of say 60,000 for the month so they could spend the day attacking Obama with it. Fox had already set the stage for this on the debate night when they did their first victory laps, saying that “Obama had a bad night tonight, and hoo boy, when those jobs numbers come out on Friday, this could really hurt the President’s reelection chances…”
When the numbers came in better for everyone, it was like a bucket of cold water on the victory dances. Because the numbers bear out a central tenet of the President’s campaign and nullify one of the central points of the GOP attacks.
Had this come out during a GOP Presidency, Fox News would be scrambling to promote these numbers. They would be talking about how this is a good sign for everyone and a reflection of the work the GOP has been doing, etc etc. Because it’s happening under a Dem Presidency, no less one that they’ve worked to undermine, they can’t accept the facts. And they’re further upset that this is undermining the “spike the football” discussions they were planning on having all weekend.
When the numbers came in better for everyone, it was like a bucket of cold water on the victory dances. Because the numbers bear out a central tenet of the President’s campaign and nullify one of the central points of the GOP attacks.
Had this come out during a GOP Presidency, Fox News would be scrambling to promote these numbers. They would be talking about how this is a good sign for everyone and a reflection of the work the GOP has been doing, etc etc. Because it’s happening under a Dem Presidency, no less one that they’ve worked to undermine, they can’t accept the facts. And they’re further upset that this is undermining the “spike the football” discussions they were planning on having all weekend.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity’s Racial Obsession With Obama
2012-10-05 20:58:35 -0400
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Brent Bozell lost whatever credibility he thought he had when he lost a defamation lawsuit filed by the WWE after his PTC posted libelous and slanderous materials accusing Wrestling of causing children to hurt each other. (Or something along those lines) The result was a settlement where Bozell was forced to pay millions to the WWE and post a humiliating retraction and apology on the front pages of his websites. Any time Bozell is trotted out as an expert on anything, that citation is useful to turn him back.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity Digs Up Another Obama ‘Race’ Video
2012-10-03 02:13:42 -0400
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Tucker Carlson continues in his quest to embarass himself in every way possible. I suppose he wants us to think it was a coincidence that he came up with this “gotcha!” video the night before the most crucial debate Romney has faced in the campaign. And I suppose that Hannity thinks nobody will ask questions about what is actually a pretty innocuous video.
When you watch the video, there’s not much to talk about that Obama hasn’t been consistently saying throughout his political career. He’s more up front about the inequity of the response to Katrina, but that’s clearly due to him talking to an audience for whom this is a major issue, and for whom he would have been pilloried for ignoring it. This is a matter of showing sensitivity to your audience – much in the way that Romney failed to do when he deliberately said the wrong things to the NAACP gathering. Here Obama is shown actually paying attention to the audience for whom he is speaking.
It’s clear that this is yet another attempt by Fox to throw up a smear on Obama, and like all the other ones, this one is failing. Only Fox and right wing sites are even carrying this nonsense. One has to wonder what they’re going to say after the debate tomorrow night. I expect they’ll immediately declare Romney the winner by a landslide but we’ll have to see if he even justifies a fraction of the acclaim they’ll be waiting to provide.
When you watch the video, there’s not much to talk about that Obama hasn’t been consistently saying throughout his political career. He’s more up front about the inequity of the response to Katrina, but that’s clearly due to him talking to an audience for whom this is a major issue, and for whom he would have been pilloried for ignoring it. This is a matter of showing sensitivity to your audience – much in the way that Romney failed to do when he deliberately said the wrong things to the NAACP gathering. Here Obama is shown actually paying attention to the audience for whom he is speaking.
It’s clear that this is yet another attempt by Fox to throw up a smear on Obama, and like all the other ones, this one is failing. Only Fox and right wing sites are even carrying this nonsense. One has to wonder what they’re going to say after the debate tomorrow night. I expect they’ll immediately declare Romney the winner by a landslide but we’ll have to see if he even justifies a fraction of the acclaim they’ll be waiting to provide.
Kevin Koster commented on ‘Psychologist’ Newt Gingrich Analyzes Obama’s Handling Of Middle East Tensions
2012-10-02 02:37:11 -0400
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Gingrich is as clueless as Hannity about the realities of diplomacy in the Middle East. In the middle of the interview, there was Newt advocating for a cutoff of aid to Egypt. Great, except that it’s a violation of the Camp David Accords and it would essentially cut us out of the area. Gingrich would think this was a great idea because it would look “tough”. Any sane person would look at that idea and see if anything else was in the hamper.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity Hearts Trump's Racial Attacks On Obama
2012-10-01 23:42:06 -0400
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Trump has been a joke in this race almost from the day he said he was “thinking about running”. In reality, he wasn’t. Such a race would be potentially devastating for him and for his television show. Better to do what Sarah Palin does and just continue promoting himself – Fox seems to be happy to help both of them do this, at least for now.
Hannity, on the other hand, seems to be taking every moment he can to just spew nasty invective at Obama. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was being a sore loser in advance. Election night, and the night after should be very interesting on his show. Will he actually show up to do it, or will he call in sick and have Monica Crowley take the heat?
Hannity, on the other hand, seems to be taking every moment he can to just spew nasty invective at Obama. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was being a sore loser in advance. Election night, and the night after should be very interesting on his show. Will he actually show up to do it, or will he call in sick and have Monica Crowley take the heat?
Kevin Koster commented on BONE-SHATTERING!!!!
2012-10-01 23:37:37 -0400
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Actually, Karl Rove’s most bone shattering attack of this campaign was when he said that if Todd Akin was found murdered, not to ask where Rove was when it happened.
Ads like this aren’t going to convince anyone outside of their base, who are already planning not to vote for Obama anyway. The real trick is whether they will all show up for Romney.
Ads like this aren’t going to convince anyone outside of their base, who are already planning not to vote for Obama anyway. The real trick is whether they will all show up for Romney.
Kevin Koster commented on Megyn Kelly Pimps Limbaugh Conspiracy Theory?
2012-09-30 13:47:49 -0400
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Fox is only trying to defend this person because their meme is to discount the impact of his hate speech. It’s pretty clear that this guy is a real piece of work, and that there is some concern that after stirring up this trouble and violating his probation, he’s going to try to flee the consequences of his actions.
The reality of the situation is that he won’t be prosecuted for his speech. He’ll be prosecuted for everything else he did, which won’t even touch the amount of misery he caused around the world.
The reality of the situation is that he won’t be prosecuted for his speech. He’ll be prosecuted for everything else he did, which won’t even touch the amount of misery he caused around the world.
Kevin Koster commented on McGuirk And Gutfeld Discuss Throwing A Prayer Rug At Obama During The Debate
2012-09-29 16:19:52 -0400
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I actually find O’Reilly’s show toxic when Laura Ingraham hosts – she regularly talks over and interrupts her guests, or takes such a snide tone with them that it’s difficult to get past her bias. This is nothing new for her – she’s been doing the same thing on her radio show for years, usually spouting the current talking points at whatever political or educational figure comes on, and cutting them off when they don’t immediately agree with everything she says. (And usually she’s way off…)
I agree that Fox has been really playing this game of “Stack the Deck Against the Liberal Guest” lately – mostly due to what looks like growing panic about the state of the election. These guys thought they were potentially going to walk into the White House and have a majority in both houses of Congress again. Instead, they’re looking at 4 more years of Obama and at least 2 more of a Dem Senate, along with losing some ground in the House. (In reality, this will actually be good for their business – they do better when they can carp about the people in office rather than agreeing with them all the time.)
The most egregious examples of this have come with poor Joe Trippi, who’s been saddled with a couple of ridiculous situations with Hannity. During one of them this week, he finally stood up for himself, noting that he was being brought on to be the “Washington Generals” and calling Hannity out on not letting him finish his answers after Hannity petulantly yelled at him to hear the whole question first, among other nonsense.
I agree that Fox has been really playing this game of “Stack the Deck Against the Liberal Guest” lately – mostly due to what looks like growing panic about the state of the election. These guys thought they were potentially going to walk into the White House and have a majority in both houses of Congress again. Instead, they’re looking at 4 more years of Obama and at least 2 more of a Dem Senate, along with losing some ground in the House. (In reality, this will actually be good for their business – they do better when they can carp about the people in office rather than agreeing with them all the time.)
The most egregious examples of this have come with poor Joe Trippi, who’s been saddled with a couple of ridiculous situations with Hannity. During one of them this week, he finally stood up for himself, noting that he was being brought on to be the “Washington Generals” and calling Hannity out on not letting him finish his answers after Hannity petulantly yelled at him to hear the whole question first, among other nonsense.
Kevin Koster commented on Hannity Talking Impeachment Again, This Time Over Benghazi Attack
2012-09-30 11:08:32 -0400
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We should note that Steve Murphy once again did a fine job of calling Hannity on his nonsense here. When both Hannity and the right wing guest tried to gang up on Murphy with this stuff, Murphy shouted right back at them, telling Hannity he was saying “scurrilous things” about the President and making the point that the other guest had no idea what he was talking about. Murphy deflected all of their rhetoric to the point that Hannity ended the segment in clear frustration. It’s nice to see a guest on Fox tell the simple truth to Hannity.
Kevin Koster commented on Dennis Miller Smears Dick Morris: His Latest Book Is Called Dubs Humps A Chopper
2012-09-27 02:11:23 -0400
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Morris has offered plenty of mean comments about the Clintons, usually showing his lingering bitterness and anger at them, now more than 15 years after the fact.
Morris’ comments once again went down badly with O’Reilly, who repeatedly cut off Morris and tried to get him to explain himself. Morris never justified his outrageous claim that the media are cooking the books for Obama for financial gain. Instead, he repeated his debunkable theories on how the polls are somehow being stacked against Romney and how the percentages are all wrong.
Scott Rasmussen also came across as doing what he’s known for doing – pressing a Republican thumb down on the scale of a political poll. His accounting of where the race is right now is clearly intended to inspire Romney voters to be more active (“It’s still winnable, guys! We’re only a point down and it’s within the margin of error!”) Larry Sabatow at least was able to poke some holes into these ideas in acknowledging what the right wing is already starting to digest – that their candidate is losing the key swing states he would need to be elected president. The poll averages clearly show Obama leading in the swing states and leading in the race. Rasmussen’s findings will match the reality somewhere very close to the November 6 election, at which time he’ll have to put out genuine material to retain his record of being accurate.
Until the beginning of November, there will be plenty of right wing pollsters like Morris and Rasmussen who will try to spin a story about Romney being a shoo-in, etc. Because they hope to make that happen by making that the story that appears in the papers. And up to the end of October, it’s always still possible to have an impact. But when you get into the final week before the ballots are filled out, the election is all but over. Morris and Rasmussen hope to shift the balance whie they still have time.
Morris’ comments once again went down badly with O’Reilly, who repeatedly cut off Morris and tried to get him to explain himself. Morris never justified his outrageous claim that the media are cooking the books for Obama for financial gain. Instead, he repeated his debunkable theories on how the polls are somehow being stacked against Romney and how the percentages are all wrong.
Scott Rasmussen also came across as doing what he’s known for doing – pressing a Republican thumb down on the scale of a political poll. His accounting of where the race is right now is clearly intended to inspire Romney voters to be more active (“It’s still winnable, guys! We’re only a point down and it’s within the margin of error!”) Larry Sabatow at least was able to poke some holes into these ideas in acknowledging what the right wing is already starting to digest – that their candidate is losing the key swing states he would need to be elected president. The poll averages clearly show Obama leading in the swing states and leading in the race. Rasmussen’s findings will match the reality somewhere very close to the November 6 election, at which time he’ll have to put out genuine material to retain his record of being accurate.
Until the beginning of November, there will be plenty of right wing pollsters like Morris and Rasmussen who will try to spin a story about Romney being a shoo-in, etc. Because they hope to make that happen by making that the story that appears in the papers. And up to the end of October, it’s always still possible to have an impact. But when you get into the final week before the ballots are filled out, the election is all but over. Morris and Rasmussen hope to shift the balance whie they still have time.
Kevin Koster commented on Dick Morris Says Romney Is 'In A Very Strong Position' To Win
2012-09-26 03:38:05 -0400
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I’m beginning to wonder if Morris isn’t genuinely unhinged. The new Black Helicopters book seems to indicate that this is the case…
In the case of his bizarre conclusions about the presidential race, I really have to ask what the man is smoking. On the same evening, in the prior hour, both Bill O’Reilly and Brit Hume grudgingly admitted that Obama is handily winning the swing states. Hume actually went far enough to establish his post-election excuse – that Obama is a better politician than Romney, who he called “inept”. Of course, Hume couldn’t resist showing a little anger when he groused that Obama was somehow resisting “gravity” by maintaining his lead over Romney.
But in the next hour, you have Dick Morris stubbornly singing on through the air raid…
In the case of his bizarre conclusions about the presidential race, I really have to ask what the man is smoking. On the same evening, in the prior hour, both Bill O’Reilly and Brit Hume grudgingly admitted that Obama is handily winning the swing states. Hume actually went far enough to establish his post-election excuse – that Obama is a better politician than Romney, who he called “inept”. Of course, Hume couldn’t resist showing a little anger when he groused that Obama was somehow resisting “gravity” by maintaining his lead over Romney.
But in the next hour, you have Dick Morris stubbornly singing on through the air raid…
Kevin Koster commented on More Left Wing Media Bias, Courtesy of Fox Nation
2012-09-23 12:08:05 -0400
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Brent Bozell and the MRC are not a credible outfit in any case. Even Bill O’Reilly has admitted as such on his show, noting that they spin everything to the right. (Of course, he was doing that at the same time he was slamming David Brock’s Media Matters outfit…) The MRC is known for the lawsuit against its group the PTC (Parents Television Council) by the WWE for defamatory comments. Bozell famously lost the case and was forced to not only pay millions in damages but also had to issue a humiliating public apology. Why Fox continues to trot him out is a complete mystery to me.
As for the current situation, I agree with the prior posters. President Obama’s stance on progressive taxation has been public record throughout his public service career. His comments from 1998 are consistent with his request for the very rich to pay their fair share. The right wing tried to run this “socialist” idea repeatedly in the 2008 campaign and have continued to ring that bell for the past 3 1/2 years to no effect. It’s not news and it’s not even new in 2012 to play a clip like this.
The Romney comment, however, is news – because it catches Romney saying something that effectively dismisses nearly half the population due to a talking point. And it isn’t that he said that they wouldn’t vote for him – it’s that he was saying they weren’t worthy of voting for him anyway. Comments like that are devastating, because they just don’t go away.
The result of those comments, plus all the other problems Romney has had in dealing with a fractured GOP, in selling himself to the public, and in getting any traction in the race, is that Romney is no longer being wholeheartedly backed by even the pundits at Fox. It’s gotten to the point that even they are acknowledging that his only chance now is to have a massive upset in the debates, which nobody thinks is that likely.
As for the current situation, I agree with the prior posters. President Obama’s stance on progressive taxation has been public record throughout his public service career. His comments from 1998 are consistent with his request for the very rich to pay their fair share. The right wing tried to run this “socialist” idea repeatedly in the 2008 campaign and have continued to ring that bell for the past 3 1/2 years to no effect. It’s not news and it’s not even new in 2012 to play a clip like this.
The Romney comment, however, is news – because it catches Romney saying something that effectively dismisses nearly half the population due to a talking point. And it isn’t that he said that they wouldn’t vote for him – it’s that he was saying they weren’t worthy of voting for him anyway. Comments like that are devastating, because they just don’t go away.
The result of those comments, plus all the other problems Romney has had in dealing with a fractured GOP, in selling himself to the public, and in getting any traction in the race, is that Romney is no longer being wholeheartedly backed by even the pundits at Fox. It’s gotten to the point that even they are acknowledging that his only chance now is to have a massive upset in the debates, which nobody thinks is that likely.
Kevin Koster commented on Newt Gingrich Blames Mideast Situation on Obama’s Left-Wing Appeasement Mentality (and Pirates)
2012-09-22 14:15:35 -0400
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It’s very strange to see Fox giving Newt this platform. They were genuinely angry with him for not terminating his campaign sooner. One can only think they need each other now. Newt needs the paycheck (he doesn’t appear there for free) and the publicity for his books, while Fox needs to have someone on who presents a harder edge than the candidate they know is going to lose the election.
The Middle East story is likely to burn out as anything of interest by the time we get to the first debate, at which point it will be just another talking point for Hannity to repeat, in the same way that he regularly tries to bring up Jeremiah Wright and the way he tried to fan the flames of the non-issue of Joe Sestak.
If anything has been really surprising, it’s been the blatant pro-Romney, anti-Obama inset ads appearing on Greta’s show. She’s normally a bit more intelligent than that – those clipfests are borderline straight propaganda. One has to wonder why she is tolerating that on her show.
The Middle East story is likely to burn out as anything of interest by the time we get to the first debate, at which point it will be just another talking point for Hannity to repeat, in the same way that he regularly tries to bring up Jeremiah Wright and the way he tried to fan the flames of the non-issue of Joe Sestak.
If anything has been really surprising, it’s been the blatant pro-Romney, anti-Obama inset ads appearing on Greta’s show. She’s normally a bit more intelligent than that – those clipfests are borderline straight propaganda. One has to wonder why she is tolerating that on her show.
Kevin Koster commented on O’Reilly Debates Koppel Re Fox News Bias
2012-09-22 14:01:53 -0400
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This was an interesting exchange – in that Koppel was not backing down. He did allow that both Fox News and MSNBC pull in partisan directions, so he didn’t completely single Fox out, but he made his point quite effectively that O’Reilly’s behavior and the channel’s behavior has been counterproductive.
I would be very interested to see the Koppel interview of O’Reilly, in case anything else fell out there.
At the same time, there was one very interesting O’Reilly moment this week that I don’t think has gotten any coverage anywhere. On Wednesday night, he had Dick Morris on and seemed to be genuinely angry with him. Morris kept trying to bloviate his points about the GOP somehow being on the verge of convincingly winning the presidency and the Senate and O’Reilly kept cutting him off. The first time, he snapped “Wait a second, or I’ll kick your coverage.” The second time he flat out yelled at Morris, something like “Can it, Morris!” And at the end, he mentioned that Morris had disagreed with his Talking Points and gave him 30 seconds to say why. Now, all of this was done while O’Reilly was continuing to let Morris plug his book, but there was something else going on. I strongly doubt the animus was just from Morris disagreeing with him – but you never know with O’Reilly’s ego.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that even the wags like Morris are unable to talk away the serious trouble in which the Romney campaign finds itself now. Both Morris and Priebus are now starting to admit that it doesn’t look rosy for their guy. Rove is now trying to use the card about the 1980 Carter/Reagan race – without noting that the current situation is quite different. In 1980, most people only knew of Reagan as an actor (not counting the Californians who knew him as a governor) and hadn’t really seen him up close until the debates. And Carter was a pretty stiff speaker while Reagan was more at ease. In the current situation, Obama is the better speaker, and the country has seen plenty of Romney in the umpteen debates and appearances over the past year. I have to wonder where they think this sudden massive surge for him is going to erupt from.
I would be very interested to see the Koppel interview of O’Reilly, in case anything else fell out there.
At the same time, there was one very interesting O’Reilly moment this week that I don’t think has gotten any coverage anywhere. On Wednesday night, he had Dick Morris on and seemed to be genuinely angry with him. Morris kept trying to bloviate his points about the GOP somehow being on the verge of convincingly winning the presidency and the Senate and O’Reilly kept cutting him off. The first time, he snapped “Wait a second, or I’ll kick your coverage.” The second time he flat out yelled at Morris, something like “Can it, Morris!” And at the end, he mentioned that Morris had disagreed with his Talking Points and gave him 30 seconds to say why. Now, all of this was done while O’Reilly was continuing to let Morris plug his book, but there was something else going on. I strongly doubt the animus was just from Morris disagreeing with him – but you never know with O’Reilly’s ego.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that even the wags like Morris are unable to talk away the serious trouble in which the Romney campaign finds itself now. Both Morris and Priebus are now starting to admit that it doesn’t look rosy for their guy. Rove is now trying to use the card about the 1980 Carter/Reagan race – without noting that the current situation is quite different. In 1980, most people only knew of Reagan as an actor (not counting the Californians who knew him as a governor) and hadn’t really seen him up close until the debates. And Carter was a pretty stiff speaker while Reagan was more at ease. In the current situation, Obama is the better speaker, and the country has seen plenty of Romney in the umpteen debates and appearances over the past year. I have to wonder where they think this sudden massive surge for him is going to erupt from.